BLOTTER | July 27: Santoalla, F. Lee Bailey, and American Fire

It’s Thursday, which means I give you all the true crime links you can handle (and that I can find and deem worthy of you). I hope you got the chance to read this Tuesday’s feature on real estate with a murderous past, but if not, take a look back now. And if you’ve been in that situation and have a story to tell, I want to hear it.

The AV Club reviews Santoalla, a new release by first-time documentary filmmakers Andrew Becker and Daniel Mehrer. The film tells the story of Martin Verfondern who disappeared in 2010 in the Galicia region of Spain. Mehrer had been involved in land disputes for years and had grown increasingly paranoid in the months before his death. It’s not a glowing review, but definitely worth a read.

CRIME:

If you can stomach anymore OJ news this week, Town & Country has a terrific interview with F. Lee Bailey, the cornerstone of Simpson’s famed Dream Team of defense attorneys. Bailey reflects on past cases and his own place in legal history in this rare profile.

Canada’s National Post offers up the riveting story of a man (a very rich man) who would rather go to jail for years than give his wife a penny of his fortune.

BOOKS:

The New York Times reviews Monica Hesse’s first true crime book, American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land which tells the story a couple’s five-month arson spree on Virginia’s eastern shore in 2012. So often we become conditioned to expect that every true crime story is a mystery, but this one succeeds despite knowing who committed the crime. The Times explains “As with “S-Town” and the best episodes of “This American Life,” Hesse has managed to wring tension and excitement out of a story with a known ending.” Sometimes the ‘why’ is more compelling than the ‘who.’

PODCAST:

I’ve talked about Criminal countless times here, but this week’s episode, called A Bump in the Night, is a short and simple one about a woman hearing unexplained noises in her apartment that is nonetheless terrifying.

My favorite from last year, Homecoming, has returned for a new season! Also, while not true crime, I think many of you would still dig it. This scripted pod is a psychological mystery told in alternating perspectives that plays with both time and perception, and stars Catherine Keener, David Schwimmer, Oscar Isaac, and Amy Sedaris. It’s addictive.

LONGFORM:

This story of two gifted teens that met at summer camp before running away together, never to be seen again, tore me up.

The Desert Sun offers a five-part series about the oldest cold case homicide ever solved in Riverside County, California and it makes for compulsive reading. Here is where the story begins.

That’s all for this week! I’ll be back with a fresh look at an old case on Tuesday.